Best Places to Visit in Edinburgh & the Lothians
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The best places to visit in Edinburgh & the Lothians are Lauriston Castle, Dean Village, Whitesands Bay Beach, Redhall Walled Garden, Linn Jaw Waterfall, Saltcoats Castle, Tyninghame Beach and Hunter's Bog.
Edinburgh and the Lothians pair a great city with a coast of pale sands and a countryside of quiet castles and gardens. In the city, the milling village of Dean lies hidden in its valley on the Water of Leith below Telford's bridge, Hunter's Bog runs green through the middle of Holyrood Park below Arthur's Seat, and Lauriston Castle keeps its Edwardian rooms and Japanese garden in parkland toward the Forth, with the therapeutic walled garden at Redhall on the Water of Leith nearby.
Along the East Lothian coast lie the dune-backed sands of Tyninghame in John Muir Country Park and the quiet bay of Whitesands near Dunbar, with the ruined Saltcoats Castle in the fields near Gullane. Out west, Linn Jaw drops into its wooded gorge near Livingston.
Some are city corners, others coast and country. Here are eight places to visit across Edinburgh and the Lothians.
Lauriston Castle
Photo: Richard Webb via Geograph.org.uk
Lauriston Castle stands in its own parkland in the north-west of Edinburgh, between Cramond and Davidson's Mains, on ground that slopes down toward the Firth of Forth. The oldest part is a sixteenth-century tower house with a round stair tower and turrets, and a larger range in Jacobean style was added in 1827.
Inside, the house is kept as an Edwardian home and shown by guided tour, its rooms left much as its last owners had them. The grounds are a free public park with lawns, woodland walks and a Japanese garden laid out in 2002 as the Edinburgh and Kyoto friendship garden.
The castle was left to the nation in 1926 and is run by the city council.
Dean Village
Photo: N Chadwick via Geograph.org.uk
Dean Village is a former milling village set in a steep valley on the Water of Leith, just below the centre of Edinburgh. Old mill buildings and workers' cottages, long since turned into housing, cluster along the river, with carved stones showing loaves and pies from its baking trade.
The most striking building is Well Court, a red sandstone block with a clock tower. High overhead the road crosses on Dean Bridge, built by Thomas Telford, while the riverside walkway runs through the valley below.
Whitesands Bay Beach
Photo: Richard Webb via Geograph.org.uk
Whitesands is a small, shallow sandy bay a couple of miles southeast of Dunbar in East Lothian, with fine pale sand flanked by rocky areas and low cliffs and rock pools at low tide. A large grassland car park with toilets and a picnic area sits behind it, off a single-track road.
A geology trail runs east along the coast to Barns Ness and its lighthouse. It is a quiet, rural beach, not to be confused with Belhaven Bay on the other side of Dunbar.
Redhall Walled Garden
Photo: kim traynor via Geograph.org.uk
Redhall Walled Garden is an eighteenth-century walled garden on the banks of the Water of Leith in Colinton Dell, Edinburgh, laid out around 1756, with brick-lined walls and an old summerhouse. It is run by the Scottish Association for Mental Health as a therapeutic gardening project, where people recovering from mental-health difficulties work the organically run beds, alongside a reconstructed Iron Age roundhouse, ponds and a sunken garden.
It works mainly by referral rather than as a walk-in attraction, though it holds occasional open days.
Linn Jaw Waterfall
Photo: Jim Smillie via Geograph.org.uk
Linn Jaw Waterfall drops into a short, steep, wooded gorge south of Livingston in West Lothian, a sudden cut in otherwise gentle farmland. There are two main falls along with smaller cascades, and the upper one is partly fed by the remains of an old mill lade.
A short walk of about two kilometres leads down from a minor road near Balgreen Farm, following the water to a wooden footbridge and then on to the falls by stepping stones. The watercourse here is named on some maps as the Linhouse Water and on others as the Camilty Water.
Saltcoats Castle
Photo: Walter Baxter via Geograph.org.uk
Saltcoats Castle is the ruin of a sixteenth-century fortified house standing in farmland just south of the village of Gullane in East Lothian. Roofless and fragmentary now, it was a courtyard house rather than a tower, and its most notable survivals are a pair of rounded angle-towers at the western corners and a separate stone dovecote nearby.
A carved stone dates it to 1592, when it was built by the Livingstone family, and it was largely taken down in the early nineteenth century. It is a quiet, off-the-beaten-track ruin, freely seen from the outside, and a protected monument.
Tyninghame Beach
Photo: Richard Webb via Geograph.org.uk
Tyninghame Beach is a large sandy beach backed by dunes and woodland at the mouth of the River Tyne in East Lothian, within John Muir Country Park. The wide sands are more properly called Ravensheugh Sands, with Tyninghame used as the everyday name.
Families, dog walkers and kite flyers use it, and there are views out to the Bass Rock offshore. You reach the sand by parking at the Tyninghame Links car park at the end of Limetree Walk and walking through the woodland and links.
Hunter's Bog
Photo: N Chadwick via Geograph.org.uk
Hunter's Bog is a hidden grassy valley running through the middle of Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, in the hollow between Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat. The valley floor is wet, boggy ground with rushes and seasonal pools rather than open water, and since grazing ended in the 1970s it has been left to grow into rough grassland and scrub.
A low path along it links the crags and the hill, away from the busy park roads. A loch made here in the sixteenth century had vanished by the seventeen-hundreds.
FAQs
What is Dean Village?
Dean Village is a former milling village set in a steep valley on the Water of Leith, just below the centre of Edinburgh, where old mill buildings and workers' cottages now serve as housing along the river. Its most striking building is the red sandstone Well Court with its clock tower, and Telford's Dean Bridge crosses high overhead.
Where can you find green space in Edinburgh?
Hunter's Bog, a hidden grassy valley in the hollow between Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat, runs through the middle of Holyrood Park away from the busy roads. Lauriston Castle's grounds are a free public park with woodland walks and a Japanese garden, and the Water of Leith threads green corridors through Dean Village and Colinton Dell.
Which beaches are worth visiting in the Lothians?
Tyninghame, at the mouth of the River Tyne in John Muir Country Park, is a large sandy beach backed by dunes and woodland with views to the Bass Rock, reached through the links from the Tyninghame car park. Whitesands, near Dunbar, is a quiet, shallow sandy bay with rock pools and a geology trail along the coast.
Conclusion
Edinburgh and the Lothians blend a great city with coast and quiet country. In the city, Dean Village hides its old mills on the Water of Leith below Telford's bridge, Hunter's Bog runs green through Holyrood Park below Arthur's Seat, and Lauriston Castle keeps its Edwardian rooms and Japanese garden toward the Forth, with the therapeutic Redhall garden nearby.
Along the East Lothian coast lie the dune-backed sands of Tyninghame and the quiet bay of Whitesands near Dunbar, with the ruined Saltcoats Castle in the fields by Gullane, while Linn Jaw drops into its gorge out west near Livingston. From hidden city valley to pale coast, these are the places to seek out across Edinburgh and the Lothians.
